Compassionate Conservatism: An Enigmatic Obscuration
I started out early in my life as a passionate Barry Goldwater Conservative. The word had a different meaning back then. It meant the Government stayed out of people's private lives; it meant balanced budgets; it meant trying to provide all citizens a level playing field more so than handouts, and it wreaked with rugged individualism. Back then it had a very militaristic and arrogant foreign policy. Like, if someone is in our way we bomb them back to the stone-age. With time I outgrew that adolescent foreign policy mentality and so did Barry. There was never a lot of empathy back then for the disadvantaged or diverse cultures. For the most part it was more obliviousness than mean spiritedness. Growing up I can't say myself or my friends spent any amount of time at all trashing blacks or any other minority, it was more like they didn't exist in our world. A kind of out of sight, out of mind.
Today I don't use the word conservative anymore. If it means anything it is associated with endless efforts to make certain religious beliefs the law of the land, it means massive federal deficits, it means endless military adventures all over the globe, it means endless legislation to enable the rich to get richer, it means the poor are left to wait for some kind of trickle down; it means blind patriotism, it means intolerance to diversity, it means character assassination as the main political operative, it means assembling a weird disconnected litany of hot button issues which prey upon people's prejudices and fears to win elections. Whenever any party preys upon people's prejudices, ignorance, and fears quite a mob can be assembled. Whenever around 50% of those eligible to vote are too discouraged to bother, the stage is set for those 1% who own 90% of the wealth in this country, to control all three branches of the government. They, for the most part, could care less about these hot button issues, they care about wealth and power and control. The hot button issues simply serve as the means to get and keep the power. Ethics, to these power and wealth brokers, is merely one more manipulative tool.
Recently these New Age conservatives have coined the appealing term compassionate conservative. I think it was the George Bush brain trust who coined this term. The question is, what the hell does the term mean? I know these new conservatives are certainly passionate about their own religious beliefs, their own family interests, their own heritage, their own country, their own kids, their own welfare, their own homes, etc. But does being compassionate to your own family and others who think and look just like you make anyone compassionate? That sounds more like selfishness to me.
At any rate I think the following is the most accurate definition of a compassionate conservative: A compassionate conservative is one who cares about many of the same issues as humanistic liberals but they don't do a damn thing about these issues. They really do wish urban ghettoes did not exist, but they still support the current War on Drugs which created these ghettoes. They always vote for tougher sentencing for teenage drug peddlers and those who use these drugs UNLESS it is their kid who abuses some recreational drug, in which case they want it treated as medical matter. They have zero interest in understanding why people abuse recreational drugs or spending money on prevention or treatment. Punishment is always---almost always---their solution to disagreement or conflict.
They really do see the sanctity of life, but never expend much, if any energy, on the millions upon millions of kids who die of starvation, who die from treatable diseases, who receive poor funding for their schools, for those who died needless deaths in places like Vietnam, Darfur, Iraq, and South America. They work hard to deny poor women access to abortions, thus leaving abortion a choice only for the affluent. They really do care about religion as long as it is their religious beliefs that are the law of the land. They really do pray for the poor and unfortunate and insist this must be done in public places and everyone else be forced to pray with them. They really do take marriage seriously and believe they have the right to choose who they marry but limit who others can marry. In doing this they turn the true concept of love upside down. They really do believe there is too much violence in our society but see no connection between violence and allowing citizens to arm themselves with assault weapons and even tote them around in public. They really do believe in the teachings of Christ, but if anyone hears them talk about other people, or their enthusiastic support of war adventures, you would never mistake their talk of violence and intolerance to solve conflicts with the teachings of Christ. Since when did Christ ever endorse indifference, intolerance, violence, financial greed, the hoarding of wealth via inheritance, the accumulation of any society's wealth in the hands of the few at the expense of the many? etc. If enough is ever enough, compassionate conservatives never give any indication of where that point is. It seems there can never be too many people on this globe---no such thing as overpopulation let alone do anything about it----no such thing as too many people killed on the killing fields---rather the solution is to surge up the killing and the level of destruction-----there is no such thing as too many military bases in too many countries (750 bases in 130 countries is always ok)---there is no such thing as too many assault guns loose in the population---there is no such thing as separation of church and state----there is no injustice about spending more on the education of children of the affluent than the children of the poor----there is no such thing as too low a minimum wage----there is no such thing as freedom to marry the person of your choice----there is no such sin as employing foreign workers as slave workers so people in this country can buy cheap---there is no such limit to how much of our GNP we spend on military hardware and adventures even when the amount is more than the amount of all the other countries in the world combined----there is no such thing as a living wage, just bottom lines----there is no such thing as an obligation for the richest country in the world to provide 40 million, and millions more soon to be, with health care----there is no such thing as drug abuse being a medical problem, just a certainty that it is a criminal act----there is no such thing as our own country being engaged in an immoral war----there is no such thing as a bad environment, just bad people----there is no such thing as any need for level playing fields, just a need to put more people in jail even though 23% of the people in jail in this world are already in American jails---there is no such thing as procedural justice for those arrested on suspicion of terrorism---there is no such thing as unethical torture of suspected terrorists, just a necessity to torture them for the frustrationl of it----there is no such thing as working with other countries on environment protection , poverty, energy, population control, or other such issues common to all of humanity, especially when Father Always Knows Best----there is no such thing as any need for inheritance taxes to return massive accumulations of wealth back into the society from which it came---there is no notion that all young people should acquire wealth the old fashioned way by earning it----there is no such obligation to put human values on par with family values----and family values are limited to immediate family----there is no obligation to spread the cost of ongoing wars all over the globe among the current population but run up the charge on the next generation by borrowing from our economic competitors----there is no need to develop alternate energy sources, just a need to drill our way out of the crisis---there is no need to close the borders because cheap goods mean cheap labor and cheap labor means huge illegal immigrant work forces----and no doubt I could go on more here, but this suffices.
The term compassionate conservative is a contradiction to itself. There is no real compassion in the absence of action. It doesn't make any difference how sorry anyone feels about the killings across the globe or any of the problems listed above if the person doesn't support actions to alleviate the problems. We can't drill ourselves out of the energy problem, we can't bomb away global conflicts, we can't escape the consequences of overpopulation, we can't stop people with nothing to lose from engaging in terrorism, we can't support some sort of American empire across the globe and also care for our own people, we can't get along with ourselves if we don't respect the rights and feelings of differing ethnic and religious groups, we can't sustain our own affluent lifestyle on the backs of the poor, we can't ever again be a united country if we refuse to share the wealth and maintain a reasonable distribution of that wealth, we can't ever have peace in the world if we insist on becoming involved in the internal politics of other sovereign nations, we can't ever reduce the mentality of violence to solve conflict when we now employ more violence and cause more deaths than any other country on the globe. We can't can't remain a world economic power if we continue to spend our money on military matters while other countries spend their money on economic issues at home. We can't foster peace across the globe and be the supplier of almost all the weapons being used in these global killing sprees.
Compassionate conservatism is a slogan, a cynical attempt to deny the essence of what conservatism has become. And no group ever yells more loudly or more often for God to Bless America. Wow. They do as they selfishly want and then tell God to bless them. Some nerve.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
ESSENCE OF A GREAT LEADER/PERSONAL PILLARS OF ADMIRATION
The Essence of a Great Leader/Personal Pillars of Admiration:
As so often in areas of human nature I tend to start with Lincoln. Lincoln wrote the book on understanding human nature---human motives, limitations, aspirations, biases, strengths, weaknesses, and needs. I don't think a person can be a great leader without thoroughly understanding human nature. A person can achieve things, some even big things, but that does not make them a great leader. For a start, a great leader does not miss the forest for the sake of the trees. Great leaders see the BIG picture. From there great leaders understand timing and priorities. To move large numbers of people from point A to point B on great and meaningful issues, a great leader will often seem hesitant, indecisive, and pandering. Lincoln, at many points in his Presidency, pleased virtually no one-- he was no Terrell Owenish immovable force---Lincoln was more like a steel cable that travels from point A to point B but en-route sways this way, then that way---but in the end, with planned finality----the cable is going to arrive at point B as planned. Both sides at the time, feeling the cable en-route sway, get enough things to cheer about to keep the situation manageable.
Great people, with isolated exceptions, are self made products of the masses, not pampered isolated products of inherited wealth. To be born with a silver spoon in your mouth is seldom a good omen for great leadership. To live, in any fashion, gated away from diversity or the unfortunate, or God's gift of our planetary environment, is to miss the forest for the sake of the trees and leave one with a level of prejudice, insensitivity, and greed incompatible with true greatness. No one is truly great who does not create a better world for all the current evolved entities of evolution. Somewhere, in the complexity of this great leader question, must lie a simple 'essence' of what it means to title some one a great leader. To lack the qualities to be a great leader is no failure---but to not follow a great leader is another matter. If enough people follow bad leaders the quality of life for human and other species suffers beyond comprehension---tolerated only by the indifference, mental braces, blinders, and illusionary religious beliefs of too many---beliefs piled up to justify the carnage and misery imposed on others. It is always 'onward some kind of soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of (some Deity)' and I forget the rest of the hymn. Today, across the globe, these kind of warriors create all kinds of killing fields in more and more lands, in maniacal genocidal or destructive surges, as humans engage is these self serving battles to gain control over enough natural or economic resources to support their own genetic, political, or religious clan. It is so bad now that while most of us are aware and disapprove of killing 2 million Jews in World War II, it hardly registers that 2 million Vietnamese were killed for no valid reasons, while violence amongst humans is so common now on such a grand scale that I doubt even 1% of Americans or other global societies even know there have been 5 million murders in the Congo in recent years. When I become aware of stuff like this it is surreal, beyond the pale. When Lincoln looked at how the lives of so many of the common people were being played out, he not only understood the injustices, but used his many talents to right the ship and steer it back in the right direction. That is greatness.
In it's simplest form, those greatest amongst us and those greatest in our past, lead or led their followers with the principle 'FAIR IS FAIR'. I am actually tired of the following self centered expression always issued in the tone of a demand---"God Bless America". When we are not demanding that He bless us, we pray that God will interfere on our behalf, or the behalf of others, to make things better for ourselves or others. The assumption is always made during this long evolved process of evolution, a process created by God, that humans are either the favored or end product of His process. Maybe so, but it is suspect in my mind. We even assume God made man in his own image. That seems a stretch. Then we assume God waits for our demands to bless us, and we pray for God to manipulate things in this evolutionary system to our favor. This seems rather arrogant to me. I guess it is human nature to always want to run the show, to have control over our Benefactor, to use faith---not reason--- to justify any UNFAIR IS FAIR selfish behavior.
I suppose most everyone has their own unique pillars of admiration. That is just the way it is. These objects of admiration impact on our own perspectives of life, influence our own behavior, help select our priorities in life, serve as the building blocks for our own ethics, our own goals, our own ability to interact with others, and influence to whom we form friendships. The number of pillars supporting our own persona varies a lot. The smaller our world the fewer the pillars. The nature of our environment colors our choices. There is no comprehensive mathematical equation available to measure the limitations of our intellect which governs any of this. Who one admires, another may despise.
I try here to identify my own unique pillars of admiration. Since I read a lot, most of mine come via that route. Some are people from the past and some are people part of my present life. I think here I will limit this to leaders and peers from the past or non personal friends in the present, and exclude any friends currently living---that could get a little touchy. In some respects these are my FAIR IS FAIR heroes. Lincoln is my all time favorite, but after that there is no order to this. These are my people ingredients---my own people build people mantra----which have contributed the most to my own persona. These are the people, with some exceptions (*), who lived their lives for the betterment of others as much as for themselves. Those with a star are pillars of my admiration for other reasons.
Lincoln
Jane Addams
James Baldwin
Barry Goldwater
Teddy Roosevelt
Harry Truman
Albert Einstein
Andrew Carnegie
Eugene Watson
LeBrae*
Louis Moscarello
Toni Sterner*
James Hart Jr.
Ray Williams*
Ruth Garvey*
Mae Merritt*
Bill McHugh
Harry Repp*
Edward Potts
Victoria Woodhull
Terrell Owens*
Malcolm X
Peter Singer
John Stuart Mill
Thomas Jefferson
Martin Luther King
Winston Churchill
Sojourner Truth
Barack Obama
Will Rogers*
Mark Twain*
Mike Royko
Frederick Douglass
Confucious
Jesus
Buddha
Bud Kamp*
Bud James
Evelyn James
FDR
Eleanor Roosevelt
Robert Kennedy
Ellen Degeneres
Mario Cuomo
Dalai Lama
George Washington
Robert E. Lee
Dick Juaron*
Paul Robeson
Gandhi
Tecumseh
Jimmy Carter
Che Guevara
Jomo Kenyatta
Nelson Mendela
Ho Chi Minh
Thomas Paine
Andrei Sakarov
Those above are 58 ingredients in the mix plus some other personal friends still alive, plus numerous pets over the years whose dumb ass contributions (the pets) to my own sensibilities are there, if difficult to pinpoint. Sometimes, alone in nature, in the stillness which abounds, I can sense the presence of these cerebral companions listed above---and I come the closest I will ever come to feeling a part of God's evolutionary process. These days I wonder whether God ever interferes with the laws which govern this process, and if he does, how often and in what way. Clearly, if He does, it is not often, and that explains so many unjust tragedies. The evolutionary process, left on its own, favors no species, no individual of any species, certainly no country, and moves ever upward in complexity at an abysmally slow glacial pace. It is like all the molecules in the planet remain forever, just get rearranged in ever more complex fashions, and these mixes, in the short run may be better or worse for any species or individuals, but in the long run, the evolving is always to a higher level. So what really matters? Maybe little at our own personal level.
There is something else besides 'fair is fair', and 'do unto others as you would have others do unto you' which, for many of those listed above applies. It is hard to define, but is best explained by the following anecdote: As the casket of Lincoln passed by, one of the mourners lining the street was especially emotional. Someone asked the emotional mourner, "Did you know Lincoln?" The mourner replied, "No, but he knew me". That is why Lincoln was great. Maybe that is why Obama draws record crowds to his rallies. "Do you know Obama?" "No, but he knows me".
These are the best of times; these are the worst of times. The evolutionary engine chugs on and where it is all heading nobody knows.
As so often in areas of human nature I tend to start with Lincoln. Lincoln wrote the book on understanding human nature---human motives, limitations, aspirations, biases, strengths, weaknesses, and needs. I don't think a person can be a great leader without thoroughly understanding human nature. A person can achieve things, some even big things, but that does not make them a great leader. For a start, a great leader does not miss the forest for the sake of the trees. Great leaders see the BIG picture. From there great leaders understand timing and priorities. To move large numbers of people from point A to point B on great and meaningful issues, a great leader will often seem hesitant, indecisive, and pandering. Lincoln, at many points in his Presidency, pleased virtually no one-- he was no Terrell Owenish immovable force---Lincoln was more like a steel cable that travels from point A to point B but en-route sways this way, then that way---but in the end, with planned finality----the cable is going to arrive at point B as planned. Both sides at the time, feeling the cable en-route sway, get enough things to cheer about to keep the situation manageable.
Great people, with isolated exceptions, are self made products of the masses, not pampered isolated products of inherited wealth. To be born with a silver spoon in your mouth is seldom a good omen for great leadership. To live, in any fashion, gated away from diversity or the unfortunate, or God's gift of our planetary environment, is to miss the forest for the sake of the trees and leave one with a level of prejudice, insensitivity, and greed incompatible with true greatness. No one is truly great who does not create a better world for all the current evolved entities of evolution. Somewhere, in the complexity of this great leader question, must lie a simple 'essence' of what it means to title some one a great leader. To lack the qualities to be a great leader is no failure---but to not follow a great leader is another matter. If enough people follow bad leaders the quality of life for human and other species suffers beyond comprehension---tolerated only by the indifference, mental braces, blinders, and illusionary religious beliefs of too many---beliefs piled up to justify the carnage and misery imposed on others. It is always 'onward some kind of soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of (some Deity)' and I forget the rest of the hymn. Today, across the globe, these kind of warriors create all kinds of killing fields in more and more lands, in maniacal genocidal or destructive surges, as humans engage is these self serving battles to gain control over enough natural or economic resources to support their own genetic, political, or religious clan. It is so bad now that while most of us are aware and disapprove of killing 2 million Jews in World War II, it hardly registers that 2 million Vietnamese were killed for no valid reasons, while violence amongst humans is so common now on such a grand scale that I doubt even 1% of Americans or other global societies even know there have been 5 million murders in the Congo in recent years. When I become aware of stuff like this it is surreal, beyond the pale. When Lincoln looked at how the lives of so many of the common people were being played out, he not only understood the injustices, but used his many talents to right the ship and steer it back in the right direction. That is greatness.
In it's simplest form, those greatest amongst us and those greatest in our past, lead or led their followers with the principle 'FAIR IS FAIR'. I am actually tired of the following self centered expression always issued in the tone of a demand---"God Bless America". When we are not demanding that He bless us, we pray that God will interfere on our behalf, or the behalf of others, to make things better for ourselves or others. The assumption is always made during this long evolved process of evolution, a process created by God, that humans are either the favored or end product of His process. Maybe so, but it is suspect in my mind. We even assume God made man in his own image. That seems a stretch. Then we assume God waits for our demands to bless us, and we pray for God to manipulate things in this evolutionary system to our favor. This seems rather arrogant to me. I guess it is human nature to always want to run the show, to have control over our Benefactor, to use faith---not reason--- to justify any UNFAIR IS FAIR selfish behavior.
I suppose most everyone has their own unique pillars of admiration. That is just the way it is. These objects of admiration impact on our own perspectives of life, influence our own behavior, help select our priorities in life, serve as the building blocks for our own ethics, our own goals, our own ability to interact with others, and influence to whom we form friendships. The number of pillars supporting our own persona varies a lot. The smaller our world the fewer the pillars. The nature of our environment colors our choices. There is no comprehensive mathematical equation available to measure the limitations of our intellect which governs any of this. Who one admires, another may despise.
I try here to identify my own unique pillars of admiration. Since I read a lot, most of mine come via that route. Some are people from the past and some are people part of my present life. I think here I will limit this to leaders and peers from the past or non personal friends in the present, and exclude any friends currently living---that could get a little touchy. In some respects these are my FAIR IS FAIR heroes. Lincoln is my all time favorite, but after that there is no order to this. These are my people ingredients---my own people build people mantra----which have contributed the most to my own persona. These are the people, with some exceptions (*), who lived their lives for the betterment of others as much as for themselves. Those with a star are pillars of my admiration for other reasons.
Lincoln
Jane Addams
James Baldwin
Barry Goldwater
Teddy Roosevelt
Harry Truman
Albert Einstein
Andrew Carnegie
Eugene Watson
LeBrae*
Louis Moscarello
Toni Sterner*
James Hart Jr.
Ray Williams*
Ruth Garvey*
Mae Merritt*
Bill McHugh
Harry Repp*
Edward Potts
Victoria Woodhull
Terrell Owens*
Malcolm X
Peter Singer
John Stuart Mill
Thomas Jefferson
Martin Luther King
Winston Churchill
Sojourner Truth
Barack Obama
Will Rogers*
Mark Twain*
Mike Royko
Frederick Douglass
Confucious
Jesus
Buddha
Bud Kamp*
Bud James
Evelyn James
FDR
Eleanor Roosevelt
Robert Kennedy
Ellen Degeneres
Mario Cuomo
Dalai Lama
George Washington
Robert E. Lee
Dick Juaron*
Paul Robeson
Gandhi
Tecumseh
Jimmy Carter
Che Guevara
Jomo Kenyatta
Nelson Mendela
Ho Chi Minh
Thomas Paine
Andrei Sakarov
Those above are 58 ingredients in the mix plus some other personal friends still alive, plus numerous pets over the years whose dumb ass contributions (the pets) to my own sensibilities are there, if difficult to pinpoint. Sometimes, alone in nature, in the stillness which abounds, I can sense the presence of these cerebral companions listed above---and I come the closest I will ever come to feeling a part of God's evolutionary process. These days I wonder whether God ever interferes with the laws which govern this process, and if he does, how often and in what way. Clearly, if He does, it is not often, and that explains so many unjust tragedies. The evolutionary process, left on its own, favors no species, no individual of any species, certainly no country, and moves ever upward in complexity at an abysmally slow glacial pace. It is like all the molecules in the planet remain forever, just get rearranged in ever more complex fashions, and these mixes, in the short run may be better or worse for any species or individuals, but in the long run, the evolving is always to a higher level. So what really matters? Maybe little at our own personal level.
There is something else besides 'fair is fair', and 'do unto others as you would have others do unto you' which, for many of those listed above applies. It is hard to define, but is best explained by the following anecdote: As the casket of Lincoln passed by, one of the mourners lining the street was especially emotional. Someone asked the emotional mourner, "Did you know Lincoln?" The mourner replied, "No, but he knew me". That is why Lincoln was great. Maybe that is why Obama draws record crowds to his rallies. "Do you know Obama?" "No, but he knows me".
These are the best of times; these are the worst of times. The evolutionary engine chugs on and where it is all heading nobody knows.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
SAME EVENT---DISSENTIENT SENSIBILITIES
SAME EVENT---DISSENTIENT SENSIBILITIES:
Not too long ago I found this neat park which is kind of a peninsula extending out into Lake Michigan, perhaps man made---from which one can view downtown Chicago from the east looking west and be surrounded by Lake Michigan on three sides. Just as important, it is not that easy to stumble on to the entrance which is a single gate and the rest of the attached land surrounded by a high fence. Few people go to this park and on a hot summer day the exposure to the lake on three sides keeps the temperature quite cool. I love to look at Chicago from this view, and watch the waves from the lake hit up against the rocks which line the edge of the peninsula. Even the name of the park is difficult to remember: MILTON L. OLIVER III MEMORIAL PARK. All I really knew from the plaque at the entrance was that Milton was a soldier killed in action in Vietnam. Recently a friend sent me the following website about the park:
http://www.mishalov.com/Olive.html
Nothing which follows will make much sense to one if one does not read the website first. Thus, read the website before reading any further.
Hey, read the website first. You are cheating here.
The Milton L. Oliver III Park means more to me now. Stuff about the Vietnam War always generates emotions, as it does in many others. For most, I guess, the sadness and gratitude generates a need to cheer on American soldiers wherever they are for whatever they are fighting for, period. I lived through the same era, saw the same event unfold, and cheered on our soldiers over there via blind patriotism. When the truth about what we did over there finally hit me, Barry Goldwater, and many others---belatedly---I felt our Government and all those who supported that war, including myself---killed Milton L. Oliver III, along with 35,000 other young American men. Since he enlisted, maybe he helped kill himself. Just as bad, 2 million Vietnamese were killed by the same cabal of me and others listed above. We wanted to bomb them back into the Stone Age and we did. The zeal with which we supported that war wasn't real patriotism---in the last analysis it was murder, a needless slaughter of human life along with massive destruction of Vietnamese villages. I wouldn't want another country to come in and level my country like that, even if the object was to rid us of George Bush and Company.
Frankly, I hate to kill almost anything. And I certainly hate killing anything for the wrong reasons.
But for a phony student deferment (some sort of precious graduate student) Milton could have been me. It is a noble and proper patriot who dies to protect his country from attack or helps defend another country from attack, but I defy anyone to give any good reason why Milton L. Oliver died---like for what noble cause did he die? At least the Vietnamese died to protect their own country from attack and for the right to control their own country with their own form of government. Promised free elections, the U.S. went back on the promise to abide by free elections (we didn't like who was going to win) and so the North Vietnamese and many South Vietnamese took it upon themselves to drive out non elected officials and American troops. In that sense at least the 2 million Vietnamese died for something. The right side won. To my knowledge they have never bothered anyone else.
From that point on I promised myself never again to let blind patriotism ever encourage young Americans to fight unmerited wars. I don't buy the notion that 'well, we are over there so we must support the troops by funding the war, surging up the killing and number of troops, etc'. It is like the parent who refuses to punish or stop their kids from bad behavior because 'boys will be boys'. The best way to support the troops in these kind of wars----invading sovereign countries for no valid reasons---is to be against starting such an invasion, to be against any young Americans signing up to fight such a war, to be against funding such a war, to end such a war, and let the citizens of the sovereign nation settle their own civil conflicts just as we did in our own Civil War. It is only whenever we leave, sooner or later, that the people themselves will be forced to decide just how much bloodshed they are willing to endure before reaching themselves some sort of accommodation to live together in the same country. All we have taught them to date is that violence is acceptable to 'win' for their side. Some lesson---right out of the Bible. Yeah, sure.
At any rate the Milton L. Oliver Memorial Park means a lot more to me now. I understand why most view it differently and cheer on American soldiers and support any of their military endeavors. It is compounded now by the fact it is a voluntary army, which further ensures military actions will happen almost routinely---that is what they are trained to do and signed up to do, albeit most maybe see it as a way out of unemployment or family situations. I don't even like to think about how many might sign up because they enjoy the adrenalin rush and meaning to their lives that the killing fields bring. There is a young adult in my building, a very polite and pleasant college kid, who thinks constantly about getting into the service and getting into military battles. Kids like that should not even be allowed into the military unless our own country is being invaded. You send kids like that into other countries and they will kill anyone who moves just to watch the man, woman, or child die. Who wants to be around some one like that after they return from the killing fields? Not me.
I don't have any answers as to why the same event generates such dissentient emotions from good people. I do know that Milton was obviously a good person, but misled, and died for no good cause. And worst of all, I am one of those who contributed to his death. Never again. If American soldiers are going to die for their country with my support they are going to have to die protecting our own country. May more and more people find the strength to find ways to end this escalating mind set that views violence as the proper means to end conflict.
On the other hand, I too have these sudden flashes of anger, about this or that annoyance---legitimate or contrived---in such cases an Uzi seems almost tempting. In earlier times such thoughts would be unthinkable. Such is progress. Sometimes it is good to lag behind the times. I don't wish to catch up. Peace. And Milton---I deplore my participation in your death---you did good, we egged you on and put you in harm's way. The best I can do is never again allow myself to be indoctrinated by my government or religion or any other organization to support such senseless violence.
Not too long ago I found this neat park which is kind of a peninsula extending out into Lake Michigan, perhaps man made---from which one can view downtown Chicago from the east looking west and be surrounded by Lake Michigan on three sides. Just as important, it is not that easy to stumble on to the entrance which is a single gate and the rest of the attached land surrounded by a high fence. Few people go to this park and on a hot summer day the exposure to the lake on three sides keeps the temperature quite cool. I love to look at Chicago from this view, and watch the waves from the lake hit up against the rocks which line the edge of the peninsula. Even the name of the park is difficult to remember: MILTON L. OLIVER III MEMORIAL PARK. All I really knew from the plaque at the entrance was that Milton was a soldier killed in action in Vietnam. Recently a friend sent me the following website about the park:
http://www.mishalov.com/Olive.html
Nothing which follows will make much sense to one if one does not read the website first. Thus, read the website before reading any further.
Hey, read the website first. You are cheating here.
The Milton L. Oliver III Park means more to me now. Stuff about the Vietnam War always generates emotions, as it does in many others. For most, I guess, the sadness and gratitude generates a need to cheer on American soldiers wherever they are for whatever they are fighting for, period. I lived through the same era, saw the same event unfold, and cheered on our soldiers over there via blind patriotism. When the truth about what we did over there finally hit me, Barry Goldwater, and many others---belatedly---I felt our Government and all those who supported that war, including myself---killed Milton L. Oliver III, along with 35,000 other young American men. Since he enlisted, maybe he helped kill himself. Just as bad, 2 million Vietnamese were killed by the same cabal of me and others listed above. We wanted to bomb them back into the Stone Age and we did. The zeal with which we supported that war wasn't real patriotism---in the last analysis it was murder, a needless slaughter of human life along with massive destruction of Vietnamese villages. I wouldn't want another country to come in and level my country like that, even if the object was to rid us of George Bush and Company.
Frankly, I hate to kill almost anything. And I certainly hate killing anything for the wrong reasons.
But for a phony student deferment (some sort of precious graduate student) Milton could have been me. It is a noble and proper patriot who dies to protect his country from attack or helps defend another country from attack, but I defy anyone to give any good reason why Milton L. Oliver died---like for what noble cause did he die? At least the Vietnamese died to protect their own country from attack and for the right to control their own country with their own form of government. Promised free elections, the U.S. went back on the promise to abide by free elections (we didn't like who was going to win) and so the North Vietnamese and many South Vietnamese took it upon themselves to drive out non elected officials and American troops. In that sense at least the 2 million Vietnamese died for something. The right side won. To my knowledge they have never bothered anyone else.
From that point on I promised myself never again to let blind patriotism ever encourage young Americans to fight unmerited wars. I don't buy the notion that 'well, we are over there so we must support the troops by funding the war, surging up the killing and number of troops, etc'. It is like the parent who refuses to punish or stop their kids from bad behavior because 'boys will be boys'. The best way to support the troops in these kind of wars----invading sovereign countries for no valid reasons---is to be against starting such an invasion, to be against any young Americans signing up to fight such a war, to be against funding such a war, to end such a war, and let the citizens of the sovereign nation settle their own civil conflicts just as we did in our own Civil War. It is only whenever we leave, sooner or later, that the people themselves will be forced to decide just how much bloodshed they are willing to endure before reaching themselves some sort of accommodation to live together in the same country. All we have taught them to date is that violence is acceptable to 'win' for their side. Some lesson---right out of the Bible. Yeah, sure.
At any rate the Milton L. Oliver Memorial Park means a lot more to me now. I understand why most view it differently and cheer on American soldiers and support any of their military endeavors. It is compounded now by the fact it is a voluntary army, which further ensures military actions will happen almost routinely---that is what they are trained to do and signed up to do, albeit most maybe see it as a way out of unemployment or family situations. I don't even like to think about how many might sign up because they enjoy the adrenalin rush and meaning to their lives that the killing fields bring. There is a young adult in my building, a very polite and pleasant college kid, who thinks constantly about getting into the service and getting into military battles. Kids like that should not even be allowed into the military unless our own country is being invaded. You send kids like that into other countries and they will kill anyone who moves just to watch the man, woman, or child die. Who wants to be around some one like that after they return from the killing fields? Not me.
I don't have any answers as to why the same event generates such dissentient emotions from good people. I do know that Milton was obviously a good person, but misled, and died for no good cause. And worst of all, I am one of those who contributed to his death. Never again. If American soldiers are going to die for their country with my support they are going to have to die protecting our own country. May more and more people find the strength to find ways to end this escalating mind set that views violence as the proper means to end conflict.
On the other hand, I too have these sudden flashes of anger, about this or that annoyance---legitimate or contrived---in such cases an Uzi seems almost tempting. In earlier times such thoughts would be unthinkable. Such is progress. Sometimes it is good to lag behind the times. I don't wish to catch up. Peace. And Milton---I deplore my participation in your death---you did good, we egged you on and put you in harm's way. The best I can do is never again allow myself to be indoctrinated by my government or religion or any other organization to support such senseless violence.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Programmed Entertainment
Programmed Entertainment:
I recently watched Lewis Black, a standup comedian, on an HBO netflix movie. The show consisted entirely of Lewis Black standing on stage with no props doing his stand up comedy routine. It was quite funny. But at the end, for some reason, I noticed the credits for this performance. I really can't imagine what all these people do---I mean the guy stands there and delivers jokes. Seems pretty straight forward. I guess not.
Listed in the credits were:
3 Executive Producers
1 Producer
1 Written by (Lewis Black)
1 Executive in Charge of Production
1 Production Designer
1 Lighting Designer
1 Associate Director
1 Stage Manager
1 Art Director
2 Associate Producers
1 Script Supervisor
1 Production C0-ordinator
8 Production Associates
1 Staging Supervisor
1 Technical Director
1 Audio Mixer
1 Video Control
8 Camera Operators
1 House PA Mixer
1 Video Tape Director
3 Audio Associates
1 Gaffer (what the hell is this?)
1 Vari Lite Operator
6 Utility persons
1 Engineer in Charge
1 Audio Maintenance
1 Teleprompter
1 Hair and Makeup
1 Editor
2 Post Production Audio
1 Music By
1 Main Title Designer
2 Scenic Photo Material
1 Tour Manager
1 Assistant to Lewis Black
2 Promoters
I can't decide, could this be some kind of joke? Or is this for real? If this is how many it takes for Lewis Black to go on stage and deliver a monologue, I wonder how many it takes for President Bush to deliver some sort of address?
P.S. I looked up Gaffer. It is the chief electrician. If I counted right there are 63 people listed in the credits. Suppose he has to go to the bathroom, he does this all by himself? Suppose he 'breaks wind' isn't there an Associate Odor Control Executive? I remember back many years ago when a friend and I promoted this country music show with Marty Robbins, Lefty Frizzell, and the Louvin Brothers---they just showed up with their bands and went on stage and sang. Times have changed I guess.
The credits for this e-mail are: Main Title Designer----oh the hell with it.
I recently watched Lewis Black, a standup comedian, on an HBO netflix movie. The show consisted entirely of Lewis Black standing on stage with no props doing his stand up comedy routine. It was quite funny. But at the end, for some reason, I noticed the credits for this performance. I really can't imagine what all these people do---I mean the guy stands there and delivers jokes. Seems pretty straight forward. I guess not.
Listed in the credits were:
3 Executive Producers
1 Producer
1 Written by (Lewis Black)
1 Executive in Charge of Production
1 Production Designer
1 Lighting Designer
1 Associate Director
1 Stage Manager
1 Art Director
2 Associate Producers
1 Script Supervisor
1 Production C0-ordinator
8 Production Associates
1 Staging Supervisor
1 Technical Director
1 Audio Mixer
1 Video Control
8 Camera Operators
1 House PA Mixer
1 Video Tape Director
3 Audio Associates
1 Gaffer (what the hell is this?)
1 Vari Lite Operator
6 Utility persons
1 Engineer in Charge
1 Audio Maintenance
1 Teleprompter
1 Hair and Makeup
1 Editor
2 Post Production Audio
1 Music By
1 Main Title Designer
2 Scenic Photo Material
1 Tour Manager
1 Assistant to Lewis Black
2 Promoters
I can't decide, could this be some kind of joke? Or is this for real? If this is how many it takes for Lewis Black to go on stage and deliver a monologue, I wonder how many it takes for President Bush to deliver some sort of address?
P.S. I looked up Gaffer. It is the chief electrician. If I counted right there are 63 people listed in the credits. Suppose he has to go to the bathroom, he does this all by himself? Suppose he 'breaks wind' isn't there an Associate Odor Control Executive? I remember back many years ago when a friend and I promoted this country music show with Marty Robbins, Lefty Frizzell, and the Louvin Brothers---they just showed up with their bands and went on stage and sang. Times have changed I guess.
The credits for this e-mail are: Main Title Designer----oh the hell with it.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
VIOLENCE AT EVERY LEVEL
Violence At Every Level:
Over 150 years ago this country was mired with the issue of slavery, and although most every other civilized country had outlawed slavery, it took one of the bloodiest Civil Wars in History for us to shake the issue. Today we are mired in an equally insidious and pervasive issue---the use of violence to solve conflicts, mostly to protect U.S. corporate control of economic interests at home and abroad. It is interesting to note much of the logic against slavery applies to this current obsession with violence as a means to resolve conflict.
Back then opponents of slavery made part of their case against slavery this way: "Slavery degraded everyone and everything it touched" They talked about "the brutalizing effects of slavery upon both the slave and the slave holders" "It turned capable and intelligent slaves into thoughtless ciphers, but it also turned humane and decent whites into cruel and bitter overlords. Slavery made ignorance a virtue and literacy a crime. It degraded Christianity, transforming believers into sinners and churches into temples of Satan. It degraded the law by unleashing lawlessness on the plantations, where rape was not a crime and murder went unpunished. Everything slavery came into contact with became brutal and uncivilized.... Slavery framed our civil and criminal code....nominated our Presidents, judges, and diplomatic agents...shaped our morality". At the time Frederick Douglass wrote: " The best friend of a nation is he who most faithfully rebukes her for her sins----and her worst enemy, who, under the specious and popular garb of patriotism, seeks to excuse, palliate, and defend these sins".
The same logic could be applied to our current obsession with violence as a way to solve conflict. Violence degrades everyone and everything it touches. There is a brutalizing effect of violence upon both the recipients and the attackers. It turns capable and intelligent opponents into thoughtless terrorists, but it also turns humane and decent citizens of our own country, or our own soldiers into cruel and bitter blind patriots. The use of violence degrades Christianity and all major religions, transforming believers into sinners and churches into temples of Satan. Violence degrades the law by unleashing lawlessness across our land and the land of our victims, where rape of foreign citizens is not a crime and murder of innocent civilians go unpunished. Everything violence comes into contact with becomes brutal and uncivilized, including the torture of prisoners. Violence now overwhelms our civil and criminal codes---it helps nominate our Presidents, judges, and diplomatic agents, it shapes our morality. The best friend of our nation today is he/she who most faithfully rebukes this penchant to use violence to solve conflict---and our country's worst enemy is he who, under the specious and popular garb of patriotism seeks to excuse,palliate, and defend this use of violence, violence often justified by lies and distortions such as calling the violence an army of freedom fighters.
Violence at the highest level, perpetuated by Presidents and Congressman and Clergy, removes the restraint of citizens to denounce violence as a means to solve their own conflicts and anger. No civilized society, mired in violence, can survive as a free nation. No nation can long get away with attacking sovereign nations or establishing military bases to prop up 'puppet' regimes, or selling weapons to governments who are oppressing their own people. When global polls indicate that the United States is seen now as the biggest terrorist nation on earth by the most people, it seems time to re-evaluate our values and priorities and methodologies---and wonder whether it is even now too late to change. "Yes we can" is by no means a certainty.
There is no level of our society or, increasingly, any country on the earth, which is escaping the insidious pervasive violence. We are now mired in it up to our neck. In just the past few days we read of a Canadian bus passenger who kills, for no apparent reason, a bus passenger by stabbing him to death, cutting off his head, and eating some of his flesh; a husband is sentenced to life imprisonment for attacking his wife and storing her in a storage locker where, half frozen, she starves to death; an American citizen is stabbed to death by a Chinese citizen at the Olympics---but no big deal, after all, the murder rate in Chicago alone is up 18% this year and rarely a weekend passes where the number of murders in Chicago alone is not in the teens; a man in Florida is arrested with an arsenal of weapons for threatening to assassinate Obama; an American Amusement Park opens an attraction in which people can put in their money and watch simulated water boarding; the number of deaths in Afghanistan reaches record levels; nations ponder what to do with millions of Iraqi refugees driven out of Iraq from the level of violence and threats of violence; the police break into a Mayor's home in Maryland, tie up the owners of the house for hours and shoot their two labrador retrievers because they suspect the owners received a package of marijuana in the mail---and amazingly the police Chief refuses to admit any wrongdoing, simply saying he regrets the error (the owners were not guilty); and Russia invades a sovereign country to 'protect its own interests' while Bush protests that the Russians have no right to invade a sovereign country with such overwhelming weapons of mass destruction----yeah OK President Bush---you have such credibility on such matters as invading sovereign countries using overwhelming military power. As the above illustrates, the violence is growing at every level of society and everywhere. Monkey see, monkey do.
Even more sobering is the realization that all these weapons of mass destruction, piled higher and higher in more and more places across the globe, have less and less ability to achieve any purported goals. With modern methods of communication, individual groups, small or large, have the ability now to wage effective war against the most powerful of enemies with home made bombs, land mines, endless sniper attacks, and thus the most powerful countries in the world can do little but hunker down, circle their wagons, and designate 'green zones'---from which they make desperate forays out into neighborhoods already bombed back into the stone age. One thing is for sure---violence begets violence. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword. The more sophisticated and complex a society the more vulnerable it now is to this growing rampage of violence. For various reasons the number of have-nots across the globe is spiraling upwards, and this alone fosters the increase of 'terrorism' (the use of primitive weapons to achieve the kind of death to opponents and their supporters which smart bombs, missiles, and other weapons of mass destruction do to their opponents and supporters of their opponents).
The choice is to alter the manner in which conflicts and injustices are handled, or attempt military surges to overpower opponents. Military surges, at best, produce temporary reductions in violence as the 'terrorists' abandon one area, regroup, use the lull to retool and fine tune future attacks. The band plays on and only those who think might makes right think surging up the military attacks will bring any peaceful resolution. Of course, in the last analysis the God created process of evolution moves onward and upward---as it has done now for millions of years. As this process continues to evolve it is not just the physical changes which are of note, but qualities such as laughter, increased intelligence, memory, ethics, appreciation of the arts, etc. Mental abilities have even reached the point where the process of evolution can now be, in theory, to some degree, managed by the human species. But, at best, this is the earliest stage in that capability, and human ignorance coupled with uncontrolled human greed/intolerance---as expressed by all this violence---will leave it up once again to Mother Nature to come to bat and clear the bases. I guess religion itself has advanced some in this process, but not really much. We still create a God in our own image Who thinks like us, supports our own prejudices, and is willing to alter His own evolutionary laws in order to answer our prayers. The trouble is, there is no evidence for this. We still create, in our minds, via religious indoctrination, scenarios where God is portrayed as a bumbling idiotic bully. I mean really, I should pray for God to intercede and make my good life even better and my wealth piled higher while God ignores the plight of the millions mired in poverty and danger? It does seem people pray for them too, if nothing more than during routine rituals. And we create these unreal rituals whereby, for example, we have clergy declare that a marriage put together by God no man can put asunder. Well, I guess God is batting around 50% now with marriages in this country. We create a God who supposedly will listen to our prayers to save ourselves or a loved one from cancer and expect he might do so while at the same time allow natives of Darfur or Rwanda get hacked to death by the millions. The whole notion that God will only interfere with His laws of evolution if we ask him to do so through prayer is simply absurd---like God might do the humane and just thing only if we pray for him to do so. I once had a student who told me he was getting an A on a test because he prayed to God that he get an A. I responded that there was a problem, that I had prayed to God that he get an F. Then there is the corny soap opera claiming that Jesus died on a cross to save us from our sins. The very notion that any of my sins or anyone else's sins can be forgiven if someone else be murdered is pretty preposterous, let alone the victim be the Son of God. None of this sarcasm here is meant to discredit or cast doubt on the existence of God but to elevate God past the level of human crafted inherited fables.
Some will dismiss all this attack on the current level of violence as simply a denial of reality, an inability to understand that this kind of violence is simply part of life, something to get used to, just live with it and encapsulate it as some kind of good vs evil, peace through strength, and God Bless America. God Bless America for what? Killing 2.1 Vietnamese? Invading Iraq? Producing more military weaponry than all the other countries of the world combined? For having more military bases scattered around the globe than any other country in the world? For engineering regime changes the past 100 years in 14 different sovereign countries? For leaving 40 million citizens in our own country without medical insurance? For selling zillions of guns to all kind of people in our own country and the rest of the world? You can't say you are against violence and then hand guns to anyone wanting one.
Violence is not inherent to human nature as an unavoidable plan of action to resolve conflicts. Switzerland has a long history of resolving conflicts peacefully and following the wise advice of George Washington to avoid foreign entanglements. There is not much blood on the hands of the Swiss. I was raised at a time when children didn't fear going to school or playing outside. Drive by shooting were unheard of. The need for metal detectors in schools non existent. Hitch hiking was safe. Back then, sending troops into sovereign countries to level cities back to the stone age and murdering foreign citizens by the millions at least produced riots in the streets and on the campuses and at political conventions. What has changed from then to now has been the elevation of the use of violence to solve conflict as an acceptable enterprise. Few Americans fear reaping what we sow. Whether Obama is naive, experienced enough, smart enough, sincere enough, right or wrong on any specific nuance on any issue is, from the big picture---irrelevant. To keep on conducting foreign or domestic issues with the same mentality is logical absurdity. And yet we are told the election will be close. Bush and the Republican Party insist everything is basically sound, all sorts of victories close at hand or just around the corner, that the kind of morality they practice (if I can use the term morality loosely) comes directly from the well of born again Christianity directly from God with God's blessings. Amazing! From the standpoint of history it is not amazing but to be expected, and has been the fate of all civilized empires. These empires have always collapsed from too much domestic accumulation of wealth in the hands of the already affluent, and the financial burden of trying to sustain foreign control over an overextended empire of one sort or another.
Having done well from the start as to the consequences of our invading Iraq, I will once again try my luck as to predicting how it all will come down in the next few years. The terroristic attacks of the various groups in Iraq on each other and the United States will continue. For those still left in Iraq violence is now a way of life. The Americans will be forced out in the near future based on the illusion of decreased levels of violence and the need to send American troops to other hot spots. The Iraq war is creating a backlog on other military adventures. Our military industrial complex is firmly entrenched and is actually our most thriving economic industry so wars, if necessary, will commence across the globe. Our voluntary professional soldiers will do what they signed up to do---make war. Our own deaths, due to our vast array of military weapons of mass destruction, will always be far less, way far less, then those in the countries we invade.
The Shiites will run Iraq, and if the violence stops, it will be a la Hussein type control, and we will call it peace. Iraq will pass the United States in terms of the number of its citizens in jail per 100,000 population and Iraq become number one in that category. All sides will have a lasting hatred of the U.S. The Shiites will hate us for delaying their getting absolute control over their country, the Sunni will hate us for leaving them at the mercy of the Shiites, and the Kurds will hate us for the same reason. Once out we will not go back because we will be mired in violence in other areas of the globe. Violence across the globe will keep on escalating as other countries or dissident groups in other countries sense now that we can only fight wars on so many fronts at once. The Cold War, again, thanks to the Bush mentality, is now a hot war, and frees Russia to follow the lead of the U.S. and start imposing their own will on other countries where they feel a need to protect their own interests, just as we now do.
At this point I become uncertain. The economic strain on the U.S. to continue to wage all this violence across the globe will produce a third world work force in the U.S. and allow other countries, whose concentration will stay on their own economic development, education, health care, and the environment, to keep reducing the value of the dollar abroad. The interest on the debt amassed to support vast military ventures will be so high as to make it virtually impossible to meet the needs of increasing numbers of impoverished American citizens. If this happens, terrorism will become homegrown with domestic targets.
Many dissident groups across the globe, seeking to overthrow their own governments, many such governments propped up by American military assistance and military bases in their country, will sense the U.S. is becoming boxed in, not able to fight too many wars at once on too many fronts. With no uniformed enemy armies to aim at, or military complexes to level, the United Sates Goliath will become wildly frustrated by the incessant 'sling shot terrorism'---the use of home made crude weapons to attack Americans and American buildings or installations almost at will. At some point we will have to decide whether to kill foreign citizens by the millions upon millions indiscriminately or retreat from our military ventures and divert our financial resources to domestic issues.
Whether Obama can get elected and actually change the mentality of resolving conflicts across the globe is a long shot. There is common ground. Most citizens of the world want peace. Most leaders of most countries prefer to avoid being targets of terrorism themselves, and may well be willing to change priorities, focus on the problems fueling the violence---like overpopulation, religious intolerance, environmental destruction, extreme imbalances in the distribution of wealth, etc. It is the U.S. which so far resists this kind of alteration of priorities. Violence and terrorism do not occur in a vacuum. This is a personal nuance of my own faith, but I think God may, on rare occasion, interfere with his own evolutionary process. Lincoln may have been an example. I would like to think Barack might be another example. And upon this hope is about all I can depend on to stop this madness of violence to solve conflict. All our marbles at this point are on military might and violence to resolve conflicts. I personally hate this kind of game plan. In one sense this makes me a poor team player, to some unpatriotic. To buck our current priorities and game plan is the only way I can feel patriotic. To support politicians who at least want to change priorities and the mentality of our approach to solving problems is my own way of supporting my country. And with a global economy, global environmental problems, and global overpopulation---whether we like it or not----my country becomes 'my world', which is the only sane realization. No country can go it alone, and if the many common global problems cannot be addressed as non political or military solutions, and first priorities for all countries, then there is no hope, and any audacity of hope becomes 'no we can't'. In the long run perhaps it doesn't matter, and for anyone my age it may really not. Evolution has been around for millions of years. All kinds of catastrophic events have occurred and the process always survives. Often, while in the still of nature surrounded by the beauty, complexity, and brilliance of this God created evolutionary process, I sense all is well and as it should BE, whatever that BE really is, and I just feel thankful and lucky to be part of all this for a 'little gleam of Time between two eternities'. I never feel more alive and part of the process of evolution than when out in nature, alone, away from human engineered conflicts, greed, and intolerance. What I have, now into my terminational years, is many good memories---and the memories, coupled with good health----is really the reward and the sustenance for contentment. All else is bullshit, useless clamor, a fool's preoccupation. I sense there are 5 rules to happiness: First, don't sweat the small stuff. Second, in the end it is all small stuff. Third, as you age you forget things. But don't worry about it---forget it. Fourth, find delight in simple things, enough is as good as a feast. Finally, avoid those addicted to being 'clever'. You can't go anywhere without meeting 'clever' people. They are a public nuisance. It is better to be kind than clever.
Over 150 years ago this country was mired with the issue of slavery, and although most every other civilized country had outlawed slavery, it took one of the bloodiest Civil Wars in History for us to shake the issue. Today we are mired in an equally insidious and pervasive issue---the use of violence to solve conflicts, mostly to protect U.S. corporate control of economic interests at home and abroad. It is interesting to note much of the logic against slavery applies to this current obsession with violence as a means to resolve conflict.
Back then opponents of slavery made part of their case against slavery this way: "Slavery degraded everyone and everything it touched" They talked about "the brutalizing effects of slavery upon both the slave and the slave holders" "It turned capable and intelligent slaves into thoughtless ciphers, but it also turned humane and decent whites into cruel and bitter overlords. Slavery made ignorance a virtue and literacy a crime. It degraded Christianity, transforming believers into sinners and churches into temples of Satan. It degraded the law by unleashing lawlessness on the plantations, where rape was not a crime and murder went unpunished. Everything slavery came into contact with became brutal and uncivilized.... Slavery framed our civil and criminal code....nominated our Presidents, judges, and diplomatic agents...shaped our morality". At the time Frederick Douglass wrote: " The best friend of a nation is he who most faithfully rebukes her for her sins----and her worst enemy, who, under the specious and popular garb of patriotism, seeks to excuse, palliate, and defend these sins".
The same logic could be applied to our current obsession with violence as a way to solve conflict. Violence degrades everyone and everything it touches. There is a brutalizing effect of violence upon both the recipients and the attackers. It turns capable and intelligent opponents into thoughtless terrorists, but it also turns humane and decent citizens of our own country, or our own soldiers into cruel and bitter blind patriots. The use of violence degrades Christianity and all major religions, transforming believers into sinners and churches into temples of Satan. Violence degrades the law by unleashing lawlessness across our land and the land of our victims, where rape of foreign citizens is not a crime and murder of innocent civilians go unpunished. Everything violence comes into contact with becomes brutal and uncivilized, including the torture of prisoners. Violence now overwhelms our civil and criminal codes---it helps nominate our Presidents, judges, and diplomatic agents, it shapes our morality. The best friend of our nation today is he/she who most faithfully rebukes this penchant to use violence to solve conflict---and our country's worst enemy is he who, under the specious and popular garb of patriotism seeks to excuse,palliate, and defend this use of violence, violence often justified by lies and distortions such as calling the violence an army of freedom fighters.
Violence at the highest level, perpetuated by Presidents and Congressman and Clergy, removes the restraint of citizens to denounce violence as a means to solve their own conflicts and anger. No civilized society, mired in violence, can survive as a free nation. No nation can long get away with attacking sovereign nations or establishing military bases to prop up 'puppet' regimes, or selling weapons to governments who are oppressing their own people. When global polls indicate that the United States is seen now as the biggest terrorist nation on earth by the most people, it seems time to re-evaluate our values and priorities and methodologies---and wonder whether it is even now too late to change. "Yes we can" is by no means a certainty.
There is no level of our society or, increasingly, any country on the earth, which is escaping the insidious pervasive violence. We are now mired in it up to our neck. In just the past few days we read of a Canadian bus passenger who kills, for no apparent reason, a bus passenger by stabbing him to death, cutting off his head, and eating some of his flesh; a husband is sentenced to life imprisonment for attacking his wife and storing her in a storage locker where, half frozen, she starves to death; an American citizen is stabbed to death by a Chinese citizen at the Olympics---but no big deal, after all, the murder rate in Chicago alone is up 18% this year and rarely a weekend passes where the number of murders in Chicago alone is not in the teens; a man in Florida is arrested with an arsenal of weapons for threatening to assassinate Obama; an American Amusement Park opens an attraction in which people can put in their money and watch simulated water boarding; the number of deaths in Afghanistan reaches record levels; nations ponder what to do with millions of Iraqi refugees driven out of Iraq from the level of violence and threats of violence; the police break into a Mayor's home in Maryland, tie up the owners of the house for hours and shoot their two labrador retrievers because they suspect the owners received a package of marijuana in the mail---and amazingly the police Chief refuses to admit any wrongdoing, simply saying he regrets the error (the owners were not guilty); and Russia invades a sovereign country to 'protect its own interests' while Bush protests that the Russians have no right to invade a sovereign country with such overwhelming weapons of mass destruction----yeah OK President Bush---you have such credibility on such matters as invading sovereign countries using overwhelming military power. As the above illustrates, the violence is growing at every level of society and everywhere. Monkey see, monkey do.
Even more sobering is the realization that all these weapons of mass destruction, piled higher and higher in more and more places across the globe, have less and less ability to achieve any purported goals. With modern methods of communication, individual groups, small or large, have the ability now to wage effective war against the most powerful of enemies with home made bombs, land mines, endless sniper attacks, and thus the most powerful countries in the world can do little but hunker down, circle their wagons, and designate 'green zones'---from which they make desperate forays out into neighborhoods already bombed back into the stone age. One thing is for sure---violence begets violence. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword. The more sophisticated and complex a society the more vulnerable it now is to this growing rampage of violence. For various reasons the number of have-nots across the globe is spiraling upwards, and this alone fosters the increase of 'terrorism' (the use of primitive weapons to achieve the kind of death to opponents and their supporters which smart bombs, missiles, and other weapons of mass destruction do to their opponents and supporters of their opponents).
The choice is to alter the manner in which conflicts and injustices are handled, or attempt military surges to overpower opponents. Military surges, at best, produce temporary reductions in violence as the 'terrorists' abandon one area, regroup, use the lull to retool and fine tune future attacks. The band plays on and only those who think might makes right think surging up the military attacks will bring any peaceful resolution. Of course, in the last analysis the God created process of evolution moves onward and upward---as it has done now for millions of years. As this process continues to evolve it is not just the physical changes which are of note, but qualities such as laughter, increased intelligence, memory, ethics, appreciation of the arts, etc. Mental abilities have even reached the point where the process of evolution can now be, in theory, to some degree, managed by the human species. But, at best, this is the earliest stage in that capability, and human ignorance coupled with uncontrolled human greed/intolerance---as expressed by all this violence---will leave it up once again to Mother Nature to come to bat and clear the bases. I guess religion itself has advanced some in this process, but not really much. We still create a God in our own image Who thinks like us, supports our own prejudices, and is willing to alter His own evolutionary laws in order to answer our prayers. The trouble is, there is no evidence for this. We still create, in our minds, via religious indoctrination, scenarios where God is portrayed as a bumbling idiotic bully. I mean really, I should pray for God to intercede and make my good life even better and my wealth piled higher while God ignores the plight of the millions mired in poverty and danger? It does seem people pray for them too, if nothing more than during routine rituals. And we create these unreal rituals whereby, for example, we have clergy declare that a marriage put together by God no man can put asunder. Well, I guess God is batting around 50% now with marriages in this country. We create a God who supposedly will listen to our prayers to save ourselves or a loved one from cancer and expect he might do so while at the same time allow natives of Darfur or Rwanda get hacked to death by the millions. The whole notion that God will only interfere with His laws of evolution if we ask him to do so through prayer is simply absurd---like God might do the humane and just thing only if we pray for him to do so. I once had a student who told me he was getting an A on a test because he prayed to God that he get an A. I responded that there was a problem, that I had prayed to God that he get an F. Then there is the corny soap opera claiming that Jesus died on a cross to save us from our sins. The very notion that any of my sins or anyone else's sins can be forgiven if someone else be murdered is pretty preposterous, let alone the victim be the Son of God. None of this sarcasm here is meant to discredit or cast doubt on the existence of God but to elevate God past the level of human crafted inherited fables.
Some will dismiss all this attack on the current level of violence as simply a denial of reality, an inability to understand that this kind of violence is simply part of life, something to get used to, just live with it and encapsulate it as some kind of good vs evil, peace through strength, and God Bless America. God Bless America for what? Killing 2.1 Vietnamese? Invading Iraq? Producing more military weaponry than all the other countries of the world combined? For having more military bases scattered around the globe than any other country in the world? For engineering regime changes the past 100 years in 14 different sovereign countries? For leaving 40 million citizens in our own country without medical insurance? For selling zillions of guns to all kind of people in our own country and the rest of the world? You can't say you are against violence and then hand guns to anyone wanting one.
Violence is not inherent to human nature as an unavoidable plan of action to resolve conflicts. Switzerland has a long history of resolving conflicts peacefully and following the wise advice of George Washington to avoid foreign entanglements. There is not much blood on the hands of the Swiss. I was raised at a time when children didn't fear going to school or playing outside. Drive by shooting were unheard of. The need for metal detectors in schools non existent. Hitch hiking was safe. Back then, sending troops into sovereign countries to level cities back to the stone age and murdering foreign citizens by the millions at least produced riots in the streets and on the campuses and at political conventions. What has changed from then to now has been the elevation of the use of violence to solve conflict as an acceptable enterprise. Few Americans fear reaping what we sow. Whether Obama is naive, experienced enough, smart enough, sincere enough, right or wrong on any specific nuance on any issue is, from the big picture---irrelevant. To keep on conducting foreign or domestic issues with the same mentality is logical absurdity. And yet we are told the election will be close. Bush and the Republican Party insist everything is basically sound, all sorts of victories close at hand or just around the corner, that the kind of morality they practice (if I can use the term morality loosely) comes directly from the well of born again Christianity directly from God with God's blessings. Amazing! From the standpoint of history it is not amazing but to be expected, and has been the fate of all civilized empires. These empires have always collapsed from too much domestic accumulation of wealth in the hands of the already affluent, and the financial burden of trying to sustain foreign control over an overextended empire of one sort or another.
Having done well from the start as to the consequences of our invading Iraq, I will once again try my luck as to predicting how it all will come down in the next few years. The terroristic attacks of the various groups in Iraq on each other and the United States will continue. For those still left in Iraq violence is now a way of life. The Americans will be forced out in the near future based on the illusion of decreased levels of violence and the need to send American troops to other hot spots. The Iraq war is creating a backlog on other military adventures. Our military industrial complex is firmly entrenched and is actually our most thriving economic industry so wars, if necessary, will commence across the globe. Our voluntary professional soldiers will do what they signed up to do---make war. Our own deaths, due to our vast array of military weapons of mass destruction, will always be far less, way far less, then those in the countries we invade.
The Shiites will run Iraq, and if the violence stops, it will be a la Hussein type control, and we will call it peace. Iraq will pass the United States in terms of the number of its citizens in jail per 100,000 population and Iraq become number one in that category. All sides will have a lasting hatred of the U.S. The Shiites will hate us for delaying their getting absolute control over their country, the Sunni will hate us for leaving them at the mercy of the Shiites, and the Kurds will hate us for the same reason. Once out we will not go back because we will be mired in violence in other areas of the globe. Violence across the globe will keep on escalating as other countries or dissident groups in other countries sense now that we can only fight wars on so many fronts at once. The Cold War, again, thanks to the Bush mentality, is now a hot war, and frees Russia to follow the lead of the U.S. and start imposing their own will on other countries where they feel a need to protect their own interests, just as we now do.
At this point I become uncertain. The economic strain on the U.S. to continue to wage all this violence across the globe will produce a third world work force in the U.S. and allow other countries, whose concentration will stay on their own economic development, education, health care, and the environment, to keep reducing the value of the dollar abroad. The interest on the debt amassed to support vast military ventures will be so high as to make it virtually impossible to meet the needs of increasing numbers of impoverished American citizens. If this happens, terrorism will become homegrown with domestic targets.
Many dissident groups across the globe, seeking to overthrow their own governments, many such governments propped up by American military assistance and military bases in their country, will sense the U.S. is becoming boxed in, not able to fight too many wars at once on too many fronts. With no uniformed enemy armies to aim at, or military complexes to level, the United Sates Goliath will become wildly frustrated by the incessant 'sling shot terrorism'---the use of home made crude weapons to attack Americans and American buildings or installations almost at will. At some point we will have to decide whether to kill foreign citizens by the millions upon millions indiscriminately or retreat from our military ventures and divert our financial resources to domestic issues.
Whether Obama can get elected and actually change the mentality of resolving conflicts across the globe is a long shot. There is common ground. Most citizens of the world want peace. Most leaders of most countries prefer to avoid being targets of terrorism themselves, and may well be willing to change priorities, focus on the problems fueling the violence---like overpopulation, religious intolerance, environmental destruction, extreme imbalances in the distribution of wealth, etc. It is the U.S. which so far resists this kind of alteration of priorities. Violence and terrorism do not occur in a vacuum. This is a personal nuance of my own faith, but I think God may, on rare occasion, interfere with his own evolutionary process. Lincoln may have been an example. I would like to think Barack might be another example. And upon this hope is about all I can depend on to stop this madness of violence to solve conflict. All our marbles at this point are on military might and violence to resolve conflicts. I personally hate this kind of game plan. In one sense this makes me a poor team player, to some unpatriotic. To buck our current priorities and game plan is the only way I can feel patriotic. To support politicians who at least want to change priorities and the mentality of our approach to solving problems is my own way of supporting my country. And with a global economy, global environmental problems, and global overpopulation---whether we like it or not----my country becomes 'my world', which is the only sane realization. No country can go it alone, and if the many common global problems cannot be addressed as non political or military solutions, and first priorities for all countries, then there is no hope, and any audacity of hope becomes 'no we can't'. In the long run perhaps it doesn't matter, and for anyone my age it may really not. Evolution has been around for millions of years. All kinds of catastrophic events have occurred and the process always survives. Often, while in the still of nature surrounded by the beauty, complexity, and brilliance of this God created evolutionary process, I sense all is well and as it should BE, whatever that BE really is, and I just feel thankful and lucky to be part of all this for a 'little gleam of Time between two eternities'. I never feel more alive and part of the process of evolution than when out in nature, alone, away from human engineered conflicts, greed, and intolerance. What I have, now into my terminational years, is many good memories---and the memories, coupled with good health----is really the reward and the sustenance for contentment. All else is bullshit, useless clamor, a fool's preoccupation. I sense there are 5 rules to happiness: First, don't sweat the small stuff. Second, in the end it is all small stuff. Third, as you age you forget things. But don't worry about it---forget it. Fourth, find delight in simple things, enough is as good as a feast. Finally, avoid those addicted to being 'clever'. You can't go anywhere without meeting 'clever' people. They are a public nuisance. It is better to be kind than clever.
Monday, August 4, 2008
"I MISS......I WANT.....I FEAR....I DISLIKE...."
"I Miss.....I Want......I Fear......I Dislike"
I suppose, when all is said and done---and more said than done----that contentment becomes the personal goal of all humans. Someone asked me the other day "why not more happy topics for your musings?". The answer is that happiness is a personal quality. One's own happiness has no broad appeal or interest to others. No one really wants to spend much time listening to, or reading about, how content another person is. I think people like to be around happy people, but not too long if the happy person babbles about how happy they are. It is far better to just be and act happy, not push it in anyones face. Then again, what about happy topics? Like what? One might call Terrell Owens' success against the odds a happy story, but not for those who don't like him. You might call the rise of Obama a happy story but not for those who oppose him. You might call the temporary reduction in violence in Iraq a happy story but not for those who see it more as a pause and the long term level of violence as bleak as ever. You might see the abundance of material conveniences available to us as a happy story, but not to those far greater numbers of people on earth with no access to those material conveniences. You might call the impact of advanced health care which allows many of us to live longer a happy story, but not to the 100 million people who will starve to death in the near future.
I suppose my more recent almost daily visits to Reva the horse which have helped her to improve her mood and not bite people or attack other horses a happy story, but she has been moved from the area and no one seems to know for how long or whether she will be returned. It really doesn't matter much since the three horses she recently has been able to share a pasture with are being permanently moved and her recent happiness will come to an abrupt end. Too often happiness is fleeting, even for animals.
No matter the level of contentment reached, humans have this life time baggage of "I miss----I want----I fear----I dislike". It is far easier to make a pet happy than a human. Irridessa, one of my cats, can lie in the bed mornings and purr loudly for over an hour. The needs of pets are simple and their appreciation for the simple care they need is is boundless and unwavering. Pets are more likely to just accept you for what you are than people ever will. It is just a pet's nature. If you are kind to a pet, they are kind to you---it is that simple, and minus endless drama.
The "I miss" part of the equation is not really so negative. The unfortunate persons are those with little to miss. The richer your life the more you have to miss. Most of the things we value in life are temporary whether it be friends, hobbies, possessions, youth, interests, jobs, skills, lovers, or too often even spouses. Gone with the wind is the story of our lives. And the wise learn to accept the inevitability of "I miss". Whatever you come to treasure you will come to miss---for this or that reason. But really, no one would choose to not have experienced the valued 'whatever' in order to not 'miss' the 'whatever' when it is gone. Philosophy is often ridiculed as a useless exercise, and perhaps to some it really is, but I find the ability to understand and see the big picture, the opposing viewpoints, the contradictions, the false assumptions, facts from opinion, and the interrelationships between diverse personalities to be the basis for sustaining contentment. Tolerance and understanding lead to contentment. Intolerance and emotional biases based on gut feelings and faith based dogma lead to discontentment. Thus, it just seems the more things you can list as 'I miss......" the richer your life has been. These 100 million people about to starve to death across the globe---what the hell have they ever experienced to miss? Those at the end of a good life who want to die rather than have their lives prolonged by modern medicine----I mean what the hell are they going to miss in the final few months? It becomes a case of knowing, in the card game of life, 'when to hold 'em and knowing when to fold 'em'. It is your hand, you call it. Or at least that is the way it should be, religious dogma notwithstanding.
"I want........", left untamed, is a 'Trojan Horse' for discontent. "Want", gone wild, is a fool's game---a disaster crafted in a 'time bomb'. Again, philosophy is not useless here. I can't really say I am more happy today because of the massive accumulation of modern devices for every convenience imaginable. I am happier only to the extent I have learned to understand my real needs, my own strengths, my own weaknesses, and tailor my wants accordingly. The formative and productive years are inescapably crammed with aggravation, competitive intensities, job evaluations, deadlines, difficult choices, personal clashes, etc. With a lot of Luck, with a capital L, you reach some goals, achieve some objectives, and get to the finnish line (the end of your productive years and beginning of your terminational years) with financial security and good health. Every time you move you find out just how vaporous past wants were and you throw out most of so much material stuff you wanted in the past. Today, suddenly this army of people who just absolutely had to have a large SUV for this or that trumped up need, now find---with the price of gas real high---that maybe they prefer to buy a more efficient smaller car. How nice it would have been if this altered imagined need could have been altered earlier---in the name of conserving natural resources. And even now, they still don't get it---to them the solution to the energy crisis is trying to find more places to drill for oil with the environment be damned, oil companies subsidized and, in a world increasingly hell bent on terrorism, create more nuclear plants and assume all these plants can be protected---you know, like ten years ago they asserted "of course we will not run out of oil". This is "want" with selfish blinders. What is unrestricted population growth but "want" with selfish blinders. I may want to be the smartest person around, or the best athlete of this or that sort, or a popular singer, or any number of other things for which I don't have the talent. To pursue such unreasonable wants is to live a life of sure discontentment. What are addictions except unbridled irrational wants? Realistic game plans almost always include realistic 'wants' and determined sacrifices. Know thyself and 'want' and sacrifice accordingly. If a rich person is not happy yet with how much he/she has, he/she is less content than someone with much less who is content with what he/she has. Enough really is enough and most religious prophets have tried through history to bring home that point. But religious prophets be damned, the typical church going fanatic has as much accumulated needless wealth as most anyone else with the same amount of money. Real sharing, the type dictated by most religious bibles, is really a rarity. The new religious right family based values mentality favors no taxation for inherited wealth---an all in the family financial empire, protected by the state from any obligation to give back to society the wealth extracted. Kids are owed a level playing field, opportunities for personal growth and achievement, not unearned inherited wealth. To sequester wealth is to deprive others a level playing field.
"I fear...." is still another barrier to personal contentment. "All we have to fear is fear itself" is cute enough but not much different from the doctor who advises his/her patient to "stop worrying about this". I mean, how do you stop worrying about something you worry all the time about? Sounds like a variation of "Just say no". How many people who are different in this or that way suffer for centuries because others fear them? To reach contentment a person has to overcome fear of diversity. Those who spend their lives resisting and opposing change or a wider distribution of justice to all, will never be happy campers. History is ripe with this sort of stuff, from slavery to voting rights, to equal wages, to equal education opportunities, to gay rights, to equal opportunity employment, to religious freedom, etc. Personal reactions to most situations need to be based on knowledge and logic not fear. It is almost always most admirable to do the right thing, not the wrong thing because of fear. Fear based on solid logic and reasoning is a good thing---it protects us from potential harm. Even religious faith is BEST based on solid reasoning and logic and experience, not ancient dogmas which reflect merely the period in which they were written. It seems rather logical that if God desired to have a written record of his demands on humans He would write the record Himself and in such a way every human had access to His written word. Every culture in Human History has always created a God who thinks like us, and had some prophets write down His words for us, a certain percentage of the words which always prove to be absurd in the face of an increased accumulation of knowledge with the passage of time.
THE FEAR TO BE ONESELF can be a major impediment to contentment. This kind of fear can also lead to an increased ability to find contentment with less dependency on others to achieve contentment. In general, with many exceptions, the less one depends on others for contentment, the greater the likelihood contentment will be achieved. Contentment based too heavily on others tends to be temporary, bumpy, beyond one's own control, and shallow. Contentment, for some, means social acceptance. To constantly please others and meet their needs as the road to your own contentment is mostly an inane adventure. It takes a rare personality to achieve much contentment that route. The alternative is to treat others fairly, with respect, and draw the line there. To the extent you have not mistreated them personally you have no obligation to dance to their tune to please them. Nor do they have to dance to your tune to please you. Fair is fair. When people are dancing to the same tune friendships form. But people don't usually dance to the same tune forever and therefore the basis for friendship collapses and friends drift away. To play the blame game on parting is fatuitous and pointless. To achieve contentedness in life it requires one appreciate the blessings which came from all friendships, brief or long, and not blame others for the end----or even worse participate in strained relationships for old times sake. We've all watched that sort of thing and little in life is more pitiful or hopeless than that. There is no use seeking permanence in an evolutionary process in which there is no permanence. Most everything in life is here today and gone tomorrow, albeit the arrival of tomorrow has no fixed date. What tomorrow always brings is a new reality, changing rules, with new players, new problems, and new challenges. By the time you reach your terminational years it is necessary to go with the flow, ride gently down the stream, avoid conflict, appreciate your past good fortunes, and relax, avoid being a pest; to the extent anyone finds you interesting enough to be around, let that be the extent of it. This is the time in life when you don't go to others if they don't come to you. Especially to those in their productive years, let them be productive and do their thing. That is good, that is the way it should be, and there is no way you can derive contentment by being a pest, depending on the sense of duty of others to tolerate you. To the extent you can amuse yourself during the terminational years, the more peaceful and content will be your days, and the more satisfying will be your social relationships with those who on their own initiative, find ways to communicate with you via phone, emails, visits, going out to dinner, etc. People are usually interesting if you get the chance to seriously engage them in meaningful conversation---not the kind of conversation you get in group gatherings in which there is endless clever, shallow, sometimes insulting or contentious chatter. Those kind of things need to be kept to a minimum. But maybe some people really do thrive on them. To each his own. Live and let live.
"I dislike......". We all dislike a lot of things. Maybe what we dislike outnumbers what we like. But contentment can't be reached if the dislike takes the wrong form. For me, I separate things I dislike into those where notions or actions make life difficult for others and those which are not my cup of tea. I dislike certain kinds of music, art, political policies, movies, sports, hobbies, personalities, sexual acts, etc. But I would never become emotionally enraged about these sort of dislikes on my part. How others dress, when or how or if they pray, their sexual orientation or sexual turn ons, who should ever or if ever have an abortion, flag burning, gun laws, who uses what kind of recreational drug, what kind of religion someone practices, their ethnic background, who marries who, etc. are expressions of diversity and opinions. Strangely, people who get really worked up about these sort of things---the single issue voters---are anything but happy campers. They always look like if they smiled their faces would fracture. They literally hate those whose behaviors they find offensive. I know, they feel compelled to say they hate the sin not the person. Of course the person must be punished because the sin exists per that person. At any rate, once you adopt this sort of mind set, contentment is out of reach, and hate becomes the essence which gives meaning to your life. Whenever you listen to someone go after these 'sinners' you can almost feel the fire in their breath. Since nothing these other people are doing directly affects them or others why are they so hateful? There are a lot of things I don't like that others do, but so what? As long as I don't have to do likewise everything is cool.
On the other hand to dislike actions by others which creates victims I find a different sort of matter. When the United States attacked Vietnam and killed 2.1 million of them for no legitimate reason, that is just outrageous. What has happened in Iraq is outrageous. 40 million people in this country without health care is outrageous. Allowing the hapless villagers in Darfur to be massacred is outrageous, overpopulation is outrageous, environmental abuse is outrageous, etc,----these kind of things are creating millions of victims across our own country and the globe. To support those politicians responsible for the policies which create these victims is unconscionable. No person with the basic intelligence to understand what is happening can go along with it and ever achieve contentment in their lives. The mind knows what a person may not admit, and as long as the mind knows these things, that person cannot be contented. There is a reason why more American soldiers have attempted or succeeded in committing suicide during or after their stint in Iraq than have been killed in Iraq. They saw the reality---not just meaningless numbers and meaningless terms like 'surge' and 'freedom fighters' and 'victory'; they understand what they have been a part of, and that understanding is more than they can handle, more than they can rationalize away, and they end up escaping the mental nightmare via suicide. Of course most people never get that close-up look at the victims from these unconscionable political/economic policies, or if they do, they have the mental strength to resist suicide, but they will never reach a state of contentment. I doubt a normal person can go along with victimizing others to that extent and hide the reality of their participation or support from their own subconscious. It reminds me of that long ago radio show "The Shadow Knows". The German population can say they didn't know about the concentration camps, but they knew, just elected not to 'know'. All of us elect not to know many things we really do know. The point is that to be content one must dislike and be angry about the right issues in the right way. If you can't change the world alone you can at least live your own life, expend your own resources, support the right politics, and have the right priority for those issues which bring the maximum prosperity, justice, and peace to the greatest number of people and species on our planet, while protecting the planet itself. The best things in life aren't things, the most important understandings of life aren't knowable---death might not be the end---it may not even be the beginning of the end; but it might, perhaps, be the end of the beginning. "There is a way of life, a way of thinking, of behaving towards other men and your fellow creatures, towards all living things, towards the whole earth and the sky and the sun that is based on love, on compassion, on respect, on cherishing everything there is around you because it is wonderful, unique, it's natural and good and it evolved that way by itself, it's got to be cherished and if we think like that and live that kind of life, we can all have our freedom, we can all have our happiness, we can all feel the sun and smell the grass and smell the flowers and look upon each other with appreciation." (Davis) This, to my way of seeing things, is the thoughtful road to contentment. All else in life is noisy static.
Of course contentment is a relative term. No one goes through their life singing 'zippy do dah day' all day long. But all of us know it doesn't take long to be around someone to get a measure of just how contented they really are. We need more contentment in this world. We need more live and let live. We need different priorities. We need to sacrifice more in the name of justice for all. We need to discipline human behaviors across the globe. And for our own good we all need to discipline ourselves, to know our own selves, and seek a healthy niche in God's evolutionary process.
Right now I think I will be more contented if I take a short nap.
I suppose, when all is said and done---and more said than done----that contentment becomes the personal goal of all humans. Someone asked me the other day "why not more happy topics for your musings?". The answer is that happiness is a personal quality. One's own happiness has no broad appeal or interest to others. No one really wants to spend much time listening to, or reading about, how content another person is. I think people like to be around happy people, but not too long if the happy person babbles about how happy they are. It is far better to just be and act happy, not push it in anyones face. Then again, what about happy topics? Like what? One might call Terrell Owens' success against the odds a happy story, but not for those who don't like him. You might call the rise of Obama a happy story but not for those who oppose him. You might call the temporary reduction in violence in Iraq a happy story but not for those who see it more as a pause and the long term level of violence as bleak as ever. You might see the abundance of material conveniences available to us as a happy story, but not to those far greater numbers of people on earth with no access to those material conveniences. You might call the impact of advanced health care which allows many of us to live longer a happy story, but not to the 100 million people who will starve to death in the near future.
I suppose my more recent almost daily visits to Reva the horse which have helped her to improve her mood and not bite people or attack other horses a happy story, but she has been moved from the area and no one seems to know for how long or whether she will be returned. It really doesn't matter much since the three horses she recently has been able to share a pasture with are being permanently moved and her recent happiness will come to an abrupt end. Too often happiness is fleeting, even for animals.
No matter the level of contentment reached, humans have this life time baggage of "I miss----I want----I fear----I dislike". It is far easier to make a pet happy than a human. Irridessa, one of my cats, can lie in the bed mornings and purr loudly for over an hour. The needs of pets are simple and their appreciation for the simple care they need is is boundless and unwavering. Pets are more likely to just accept you for what you are than people ever will. It is just a pet's nature. If you are kind to a pet, they are kind to you---it is that simple, and minus endless drama.
The "I miss" part of the equation is not really so negative. The unfortunate persons are those with little to miss. The richer your life the more you have to miss. Most of the things we value in life are temporary whether it be friends, hobbies, possessions, youth, interests, jobs, skills, lovers, or too often even spouses. Gone with the wind is the story of our lives. And the wise learn to accept the inevitability of "I miss". Whatever you come to treasure you will come to miss---for this or that reason. But really, no one would choose to not have experienced the valued 'whatever' in order to not 'miss' the 'whatever' when it is gone. Philosophy is often ridiculed as a useless exercise, and perhaps to some it really is, but I find the ability to understand and see the big picture, the opposing viewpoints, the contradictions, the false assumptions, facts from opinion, and the interrelationships between diverse personalities to be the basis for sustaining contentment. Tolerance and understanding lead to contentment. Intolerance and emotional biases based on gut feelings and faith based dogma lead to discontentment. Thus, it just seems the more things you can list as 'I miss......" the richer your life has been. These 100 million people about to starve to death across the globe---what the hell have they ever experienced to miss? Those at the end of a good life who want to die rather than have their lives prolonged by modern medicine----I mean what the hell are they going to miss in the final few months? It becomes a case of knowing, in the card game of life, 'when to hold 'em and knowing when to fold 'em'. It is your hand, you call it. Or at least that is the way it should be, religious dogma notwithstanding.
"I want........", left untamed, is a 'Trojan Horse' for discontent. "Want", gone wild, is a fool's game---a disaster crafted in a 'time bomb'. Again, philosophy is not useless here. I can't really say I am more happy today because of the massive accumulation of modern devices for every convenience imaginable. I am happier only to the extent I have learned to understand my real needs, my own strengths, my own weaknesses, and tailor my wants accordingly. The formative and productive years are inescapably crammed with aggravation, competitive intensities, job evaluations, deadlines, difficult choices, personal clashes, etc. With a lot of Luck, with a capital L, you reach some goals, achieve some objectives, and get to the finnish line (the end of your productive years and beginning of your terminational years) with financial security and good health. Every time you move you find out just how vaporous past wants were and you throw out most of so much material stuff you wanted in the past. Today, suddenly this army of people who just absolutely had to have a large SUV for this or that trumped up need, now find---with the price of gas real high---that maybe they prefer to buy a more efficient smaller car. How nice it would have been if this altered imagined need could have been altered earlier---in the name of conserving natural resources. And even now, they still don't get it---to them the solution to the energy crisis is trying to find more places to drill for oil with the environment be damned, oil companies subsidized and, in a world increasingly hell bent on terrorism, create more nuclear plants and assume all these plants can be protected---you know, like ten years ago they asserted "of course we will not run out of oil". This is "want" with selfish blinders. What is unrestricted population growth but "want" with selfish blinders. I may want to be the smartest person around, or the best athlete of this or that sort, or a popular singer, or any number of other things for which I don't have the talent. To pursue such unreasonable wants is to live a life of sure discontentment. What are addictions except unbridled irrational wants? Realistic game plans almost always include realistic 'wants' and determined sacrifices. Know thyself and 'want' and sacrifice accordingly. If a rich person is not happy yet with how much he/she has, he/she is less content than someone with much less who is content with what he/she has. Enough really is enough and most religious prophets have tried through history to bring home that point. But religious prophets be damned, the typical church going fanatic has as much accumulated needless wealth as most anyone else with the same amount of money. Real sharing, the type dictated by most religious bibles, is really a rarity. The new religious right family based values mentality favors no taxation for inherited wealth---an all in the family financial empire, protected by the state from any obligation to give back to society the wealth extracted. Kids are owed a level playing field, opportunities for personal growth and achievement, not unearned inherited wealth. To sequester wealth is to deprive others a level playing field.
"I fear...." is still another barrier to personal contentment. "All we have to fear is fear itself" is cute enough but not much different from the doctor who advises his/her patient to "stop worrying about this". I mean, how do you stop worrying about something you worry all the time about? Sounds like a variation of "Just say no". How many people who are different in this or that way suffer for centuries because others fear them? To reach contentment a person has to overcome fear of diversity. Those who spend their lives resisting and opposing change or a wider distribution of justice to all, will never be happy campers. History is ripe with this sort of stuff, from slavery to voting rights, to equal wages, to equal education opportunities, to gay rights, to equal opportunity employment, to religious freedom, etc. Personal reactions to most situations need to be based on knowledge and logic not fear. It is almost always most admirable to do the right thing, not the wrong thing because of fear. Fear based on solid logic and reasoning is a good thing---it protects us from potential harm. Even religious faith is BEST based on solid reasoning and logic and experience, not ancient dogmas which reflect merely the period in which they were written. It seems rather logical that if God desired to have a written record of his demands on humans He would write the record Himself and in such a way every human had access to His written word. Every culture in Human History has always created a God who thinks like us, and had some prophets write down His words for us, a certain percentage of the words which always prove to be absurd in the face of an increased accumulation of knowledge with the passage of time.
THE FEAR TO BE ONESELF can be a major impediment to contentment. This kind of fear can also lead to an increased ability to find contentment with less dependency on others to achieve contentment. In general, with many exceptions, the less one depends on others for contentment, the greater the likelihood contentment will be achieved. Contentment based too heavily on others tends to be temporary, bumpy, beyond one's own control, and shallow. Contentment, for some, means social acceptance. To constantly please others and meet their needs as the road to your own contentment is mostly an inane adventure. It takes a rare personality to achieve much contentment that route. The alternative is to treat others fairly, with respect, and draw the line there. To the extent you have not mistreated them personally you have no obligation to dance to their tune to please them. Nor do they have to dance to your tune to please you. Fair is fair. When people are dancing to the same tune friendships form. But people don't usually dance to the same tune forever and therefore the basis for friendship collapses and friends drift away. To play the blame game on parting is fatuitous and pointless. To achieve contentedness in life it requires one appreciate the blessings which came from all friendships, brief or long, and not blame others for the end----or even worse participate in strained relationships for old times sake. We've all watched that sort of thing and little in life is more pitiful or hopeless than that. There is no use seeking permanence in an evolutionary process in which there is no permanence. Most everything in life is here today and gone tomorrow, albeit the arrival of tomorrow has no fixed date. What tomorrow always brings is a new reality, changing rules, with new players, new problems, and new challenges. By the time you reach your terminational years it is necessary to go with the flow, ride gently down the stream, avoid conflict, appreciate your past good fortunes, and relax, avoid being a pest; to the extent anyone finds you interesting enough to be around, let that be the extent of it. This is the time in life when you don't go to others if they don't come to you. Especially to those in their productive years, let them be productive and do their thing. That is good, that is the way it should be, and there is no way you can derive contentment by being a pest, depending on the sense of duty of others to tolerate you. To the extent you can amuse yourself during the terminational years, the more peaceful and content will be your days, and the more satisfying will be your social relationships with those who on their own initiative, find ways to communicate with you via phone, emails, visits, going out to dinner, etc. People are usually interesting if you get the chance to seriously engage them in meaningful conversation---not the kind of conversation you get in group gatherings in which there is endless clever, shallow, sometimes insulting or contentious chatter. Those kind of things need to be kept to a minimum. But maybe some people really do thrive on them. To each his own. Live and let live.
"I dislike......". We all dislike a lot of things. Maybe what we dislike outnumbers what we like. But contentment can't be reached if the dislike takes the wrong form. For me, I separate things I dislike into those where notions or actions make life difficult for others and those which are not my cup of tea. I dislike certain kinds of music, art, political policies, movies, sports, hobbies, personalities, sexual acts, etc. But I would never become emotionally enraged about these sort of dislikes on my part. How others dress, when or how or if they pray, their sexual orientation or sexual turn ons, who should ever or if ever have an abortion, flag burning, gun laws, who uses what kind of recreational drug, what kind of religion someone practices, their ethnic background, who marries who, etc. are expressions of diversity and opinions. Strangely, people who get really worked up about these sort of things---the single issue voters---are anything but happy campers. They always look like if they smiled their faces would fracture. They literally hate those whose behaviors they find offensive. I know, they feel compelled to say they hate the sin not the person. Of course the person must be punished because the sin exists per that person. At any rate, once you adopt this sort of mind set, contentment is out of reach, and hate becomes the essence which gives meaning to your life. Whenever you listen to someone go after these 'sinners' you can almost feel the fire in their breath. Since nothing these other people are doing directly affects them or others why are they so hateful? There are a lot of things I don't like that others do, but so what? As long as I don't have to do likewise everything is cool.
On the other hand to dislike actions by others which creates victims I find a different sort of matter. When the United States attacked Vietnam and killed 2.1 million of them for no legitimate reason, that is just outrageous. What has happened in Iraq is outrageous. 40 million people in this country without health care is outrageous. Allowing the hapless villagers in Darfur to be massacred is outrageous, overpopulation is outrageous, environmental abuse is outrageous, etc,----these kind of things are creating millions of victims across our own country and the globe. To support those politicians responsible for the policies which create these victims is unconscionable. No person with the basic intelligence to understand what is happening can go along with it and ever achieve contentment in their lives. The mind knows what a person may not admit, and as long as the mind knows these things, that person cannot be contented. There is a reason why more American soldiers have attempted or succeeded in committing suicide during or after their stint in Iraq than have been killed in Iraq. They saw the reality---not just meaningless numbers and meaningless terms like 'surge' and 'freedom fighters' and 'victory'; they understand what they have been a part of, and that understanding is more than they can handle, more than they can rationalize away, and they end up escaping the mental nightmare via suicide. Of course most people never get that close-up look at the victims from these unconscionable political/economic policies, or if they do, they have the mental strength to resist suicide, but they will never reach a state of contentment. I doubt a normal person can go along with victimizing others to that extent and hide the reality of their participation or support from their own subconscious. It reminds me of that long ago radio show "The Shadow Knows". The German population can say they didn't know about the concentration camps, but they knew, just elected not to 'know'. All of us elect not to know many things we really do know. The point is that to be content one must dislike and be angry about the right issues in the right way. If you can't change the world alone you can at least live your own life, expend your own resources, support the right politics, and have the right priority for those issues which bring the maximum prosperity, justice, and peace to the greatest number of people and species on our planet, while protecting the planet itself. The best things in life aren't things, the most important understandings of life aren't knowable---death might not be the end---it may not even be the beginning of the end; but it might, perhaps, be the end of the beginning. "There is a way of life, a way of thinking, of behaving towards other men and your fellow creatures, towards all living things, towards the whole earth and the sky and the sun that is based on love, on compassion, on respect, on cherishing everything there is around you because it is wonderful, unique, it's natural and good and it evolved that way by itself, it's got to be cherished and if we think like that and live that kind of life, we can all have our freedom, we can all have our happiness, we can all feel the sun and smell the grass and smell the flowers and look upon each other with appreciation." (Davis) This, to my way of seeing things, is the thoughtful road to contentment. All else in life is noisy static.
Of course contentment is a relative term. No one goes through their life singing 'zippy do dah day' all day long. But all of us know it doesn't take long to be around someone to get a measure of just how contented they really are. We need more contentment in this world. We need more live and let live. We need different priorities. We need to sacrifice more in the name of justice for all. We need to discipline human behaviors across the globe. And for our own good we all need to discipline ourselves, to know our own selves, and seek a healthy niche in God's evolutionary process.
Right now I think I will be more contented if I take a short nap.
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